Jimmy Fallon leads late-night ratings with ‘Tonight Show’ debut

Between 9 million and 10 million people tuned in to watch Jimmy Fallon’s debut on the “Tonight Show” Monday night, blowing away the competition in the late-night ratings and beating Fallon’s personal record during five years of hosting “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”

Still, Fallon was down 23% from longtime “Tonight” host Jay Leno’s final episode, which aired Feb. 6, though Leno’s departure was helped in the ratings by a start time of 11:35 p.m. Eastern, 25 minutes earlier than Fallon’s debut, according to Variety.

Fallon tied the summer 2009 debut of Conan O’Brien, who hosted the venerable talk show for a year before departing the network for TBS. But Conan didn’t have the added boost of an Olympic lead-in for his debut.

A troupe of celebrities including Robert De Niro, Mike Tyson, Lady Gaga, Rudy Giuliani, Joe Namath, Tracy Morgan, Joan Rivers, Mariah Carey, Seth Rogen, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Kardashian, Tina Fey and Lindsay Lohan were on hand for the first “Tonight Show” filmed in New York since 1972, joining Fallon for a self-deprecating sketch about a friendly wager that he would never be chosen to host “The Tonight Show.”

One by one, they approached Fallon’s desk to settle up for losing the bet, handing him a $100 bill.

All except for Stephen Colbert, whose “Colbert Report” on Comedy Central will compete for eyeballs with Fallon’s “Tonight.” Colbert gleefully showered the host with coins before pausing to take a selfie.

During the opening monologue, Fallon warmly thanked his parents, who were in the audience, reminiscing about his childhood in Saugerties, N.Y., when he would beg them to let him stay up late and watch Johnny Carson. Carson hosted the show from 1962 to 1992.

“I remember being a kid … and asking my parents, ‘Can I stay up to watch Johnny Carson?’ And that was a big deal, to stay up late,” Fallon said.

“To think there is a kid out there who will be asking to stay up and watch me — well, that just means a lot to me.”

The “Tonight Show” has been the No. 1-rated late-night program for most of its time on air since its premiere in 1954.

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